


I Can Show You the World

by allmylovesatonce



Category: The Mindy Project
Genre: AU, F/M, Traveling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-23
Updated: 2015-06-18
Packaged: 2018-03-31 19:50:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 21,726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3990568
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/allmylovesatonce/pseuds/allmylovesatonce
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompted by lizzylizard84 on Tumblr:<br/>It's senior year in college, Danny and Mindy travel through Europe and fall for each other in the process.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. British Air Space

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lizzylizard84](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lizzylizard84/gifts).



*Ding*

 “We will be making our final descent into London. Please put your seat backs and tray tables in their upright and locked positions. All portable electronics must be turned back off at this time. Thank you.”

Mindy quickly turned off her laptop and put it back in her bag. She looked out the window, happy to finally see something other than the Atlantic Ocean. Her flight from Boston to London had been hellishly long. Sure, the flights she used to take to India with her parents had been much longer than six and a half hours but Mindy’s giddiness was getting the best of her and making her extremely impatient.   

She was studying abroad. Well, the term “studying” was just a formality. She was essentially spending her summer touring Europe and getting college credit for it. It was the summer before her senior year of college. Her last summer of freedom was upon her. She decided she was going to have an amazing summer before the hell that would be her last year of college and then medical school. She knew the teacher leading the group pretty well. There were maybe four or five familiar faces on the trip too. Apparently they also let some outsiders on the trip as well. Mindy made a mental note to stop referring to these people as outsiders just because they went to a different college. That wouldn’t make a great impression.

As Mindy navigated off the plane, through customs, and towards the exit, she was trying to find her group. She spotted her teacher waiting with a sign. There were already a few people waiting near him. Mindy pranced over excitedly. It was finally happening. She was finally in England and on her adventures away from home. As the other group members started gathering, Mindy started sizing them up as she was prone to doing. She was looking for the obvious things. Who could be her study abroad best friend? Were there any attractive males she should pursue? Were there any people she should avoid like the plague? She had to scope out these things.

She was looking around the airport, examining the differences between a British airport and one back home. Admittedly, they were pretty much the same. She was caught up in her reverie of people watching and didn’t realize her group had started to leave.

“Hey, you gonna follow them or what?” Mindy heard a rude man behind her ask.

She whirled around to give him a biting retort but was taken aback by the sight of him. Crap he was attractive. Her fire went out of her and instead her stupid school girl voice came on of its own accord.

“Sorry. I didn’t realize we were leaving. My bad,” Mindy giggled. She could kill herself right now. She sounded so stupid. She grabbed both her suitcases and tried to catch up with the line. Classic Mindy, though, had over packed. Her two suitcases were way too full and became hard to maneuver. She could hear the handsome guy behind her grumbling. He stopped her and put his suitcase in front of her. He then grabbed both of hers and marched off in the direction of the group.

“Hey! Come back here!” Mindy yelled, wondering why someone would steal her luggage and leave his. She grabbed it and ran after him. The closer she got to the van waiting for them, it dawned on her that maybe he was one of the people on her trip. She was right behind him as Dr. Jones was checking people into the van.

“Castellano, Danny,” Mindy heard the handsome one say.

“Ah, Danny. From New York. Great to have you,” Dr. Jones replied happily. He looked over and saw Mindy, smiling at her while checking her name. Apparently he was really happy to get this trip started. Mindy looked into the van before she climbed into it. There were twelve people on this trip and at most this van held ten people. She tried to scope out the best people to squeeze between but since she was the last person to get in, her pickings were slim. She ended up jammed between the window and the guy who’s name was evidently Danny. It was not pleasant.

“You’re welcome,” Mindy heard him mutter to her.

She snapped her head in his direction. “I’m sorry?”

“I helped you schlep all your luggage back there. Which if I may say, you have entirely too much. But the least you could do is thank me.”

Mindy gaped at him. “Okay well I never asked you for your help. You just ripped my bags from my hands and ran off. For all I knew, you were a mugger.”

“Oh please.”

“I’m sorry if I held you up while I was admiring the view. It wasn’t that I couldn’t handle my luggage. I assure you.”

Danny scoffed. “It’s the airport! What view are you going to get from here? You were struggling and I helped you. It’s only polite to thank people.”

Mindy fully turned her body toward him. “And is it polite to keep arguing with someone over whether or not you helped them? I’m sorry if you needed affirmation that you’re a good and chivalrous person but I was just fine.”

Danny laughed and shook his head at her. “Yeah Sweetheart, whatever helps you sleep at night.”

Mindy glared at him before turning herself back toward the window as the van started moving.

“So what? You’re just going to turn around and ignore me because I won our argument?” Danny asked.

Mindy whipped her head around saying, “I was just going to let it go and enjoy the view of the city as we drive through it. I’d rather appreciate this opportunity than waste it by looking at your weird face and arguing with you.” With that she turned her head slowly back toward the window.

Danny stared with an almost frightened look in his eye. Mindy may not have found her study abroad bestie or picked the guy she should pursue. But as they drove into the heart of London, Mindy was sure about one thing. Danny Castellano was absolutely the person she was going to avoid.  


	2. London

Danny was flummoxed. He could admit it to himself, he’d been a dick to that girl. He didn’t even know her name and he was acting like he was so much better than her. The thing that flummoxed him though, was that she didn’t back down. She stood up to him. Usually when he acted like that people just ignored him or came up with some lame response that he could also throw back in their face. But this girl, she wouldn’t back down. It was intriguing to him. He was filled with an urge to talk to her. They were pretty much on their own though until class started the next morning. Danny had no clue where in this hotel she was staying and he wasn’t about stalking her. That would just give her more ammunition.

When they met for class, she plopped down at the front. He was a seat behind her. He was fixated on her the whole time. He just wanted to figure her out. He wasn’t really paying much attention to class. He couldn’t get his mind off of her. This probably wouldn’t bode well for him. She raised her hand and the teacher walked closer to her. Danny hoped she wasn’t going to ask him to tell the creep behind her to stop staring. The teacher gently called her name. Apparently her name was Mindy. Pretty. After about fifteen more minutes, Dr. Jones dismissed the class saying that he wanted them to go explore London and get a feel for the place. Everyone started gathering their things before Danny fully processed it.

Danny saw Mindy walk out of the classroom and he chased after her. “Hey Mindy, wait up!” he yelled, trying to catch up with her. Mindy turned around to look at who was calling her name. A look of cheer quickly turned into an eye roll and a scowl.

“I’m sorry was I in your way or something again?” Mindy asked cuttingly. Danny was surprised by her tone. He really got off on the wrong foot with her.

“I’m sorry about that. I was hoping to show you I’m not usually a jerk like that. I wanted to show you the real me,” Danny rambled.

“Oh gross are you coming on to me?” Mindy asked, looking disgusted.

Danny was taken aback by her horror at the possibility. “What? No. I was just going to apologize for being rude yesterday. I’m not usually like that. I just couldn’t sleep on the plane and I guess I was a bit worn down. Sorry for being so short with you.”

Mindy narrowed her eyes and stared back at him. “Are you serious right now? That doesn’t sound like an apology; it sounds like excuses. Boohoo. You couldn’t sleep? Neither could I. You didn’t see me being an asshole to someone I didn’t even know. I would have just let that whole weird moment with the luggage go but you decided that you couldn’t.”

Danny was speechless. She really was feisty. He wasn’t used to having someone put him in his place like this. “Look, Mindy, I’m just sorry we got off on the wrong foot. We’re going to be spending the whole summer together; we might as well try to get along.”

Mindy shook her head and laughed almost manically. “What you’re saying is that you aren’t sorry that you were a jerk, you’re sorry that we didn’t get along and now it’s going to be uncomfortable all summer. Maybe you should have thought of that before you acted like a jackass.”

Danny gaped at her. “Mindy –“

“Hey Mindy!” One of the other girls called as she walked toward them. “We’re all getting ready to go out and explore. You going to come?”

“Yeah, Madison, I’ll be right there,” Mindy replied.

Madison looked hesitantly at Danny. “Umm, Danny, you should come too.” Danny just nodded and fell in with the other two, following them out to the rest of the group.

After many different ideas for where they should go first, somehow the whole group ended up at the London Eye. Danny trailed behind the group and looked up at it sickly. He didn’t want to admit to anyone, but he was kind of afraid of heights. As they were walking in to buy their tickets Danny started to sweat.

“You know what? I think I’m just going to sit this one out. Maybe I’ll just watch you guys do this,” Danny explained weakly. Everyone started to argue with him. They all wanted him to join them. Danny was flattered but he really didn’t want to go up on that thing.

Mindy’s voice broke through the crowd, “What are you afraid of heights?” She asked mockingly. Danny wouldn’t let her be right.

“No. I just didn’t want to pay for it. I can see the city by walking through it,” Danny countered.

“Fine. If it’s just a money thing, _I’ll_ buy your ticket for you, Danny. You wouldn’t want to miss on this group bonding activity on our first day together in a foreign country. The moment we’ll all look back on at the end of the trip and say ‘Oh remember when we basically didn’t know each other and we all went on the Eye together. What a great bonding moment!’ Do you want us to also be talking about what a stick in the mud you are?” Mindy challenged him.

Danny swallowed; he was going to have to go on this thing after all. He couldn’t back down from her. “You know what Mindy? That sounds fantastic! Thanks for being such a great friend to want to make sure I’m included,” Danny replied, clapping her on the back.

Slowly but surely, the group made it to the front of the line. When it was their turn, they all ran to get on since it didn’t stop moving. It moved slower than Danny expected. Being surrounded by people and being closed in was actually fairly comforting for him. When they reached the top, though he was a bit nervous, he didn’t let it show. The view was absolutely breathtaking. Everyone was pretty much in awe of everything they could see. Parliament and Big Ben were a very prominent sight with Westminster Abbey right behind. Looking closer, they could see Buckingham Palace off in the distance. Everyone kept pointing out things they could see and taking pictures. Danny’s fears actually weren’t that bad. He was pretty grateful to Mindy for making him go. He’d probably never tell her that though.

After they had wandered around for a few more hours, the group started to part ways to find places to eat. No one could agree on what they wanted. Three of the girls wanted Curry but Mindy flat out refused. A bunch of the guys wanted something with meat. Others wanted fish. Two girls kept talking about some place they’d heard of called Nando’s. No one was compromising so they all started to split up. Mindy was tagging along with the group of guys. The place they were going to eat was right across the street from where they were. The walk sign still wasn’t lit, but Danny lived in New York City where people only followed those if there were actually cars driving through the intersection. He looked to the left and didn’t see any cars. He started to cross the street when he heard her.

“Danny, no!” Mindy yelled, yanking him out of the street right as a car was flying by from the right. The momentum she built threw them both back into the rest of the guys. She grabbed his arms and was looking in his eyes for signs of hurt. Danny was really just shaken from the whole thing.

“Are you okay?” Mindy asked cautiously.

Danny looked around and moved his arms a little. Everything felt fine. “Yeah, I’m okay,” Danny replied nodding and releasing a sigh.

Mindy nodded back, “Good.” Then she swiftly punched him in the arm. “Hey Idiot, cars are on the left side of the road here.  You looked in the wrong direction.”

 Danny nodded, “Yeah. Yeah, I got that.”

When the walk sign turned, they all crossed the street. Danny looked over at Mindy. He felt like now more than ever he needed to get to know her. Whether he liked it or not, he now owed Mindy his life.


	3. London, Part Two

Night came and the whole group managed to meet up at a local pub. Mindy was ready for her first real night out in Europe. She was pretty much ready to make this scene her bitch. She sidled up to the bar and leaned forward to request a drink. The bartender walked right past her to serve another customer. It happened again and again no matter how much louder she got. She simply couldn’t get these people’s attention. She chalked it up to them being racist sexists.

When Mindy was about to grab one by the arm, she saw a hand with a few pounds clenched in it sneak by her head. The bartenders were certainly interested in that. “Hey! Could I get a Newcastle and whatever she wants?” The bartender looked at Mindy. She glanced behind her and saw Danny standing there looking at her expectantly. She turned back toward the bar and said she’d have the same. It would just be easier that way.

Danny sat down in one of the seats at the bar and gestured for her to sit in the one she was standing in front of. She pulled it back and sat down, eyeing him skeptically.

“Paying me back for your ticket?” Mindy asked curiously.

“Nah. I thought buying you a drink was the least I could do after you saved my life earlier,” Danny replied nonchalantly. He made it seem like nearly getting creamed by a car was nothing. Mindy chuckled to herself.

“Yeah, well you’re welcome,” Mindy said, throwing his words back at him.

Danny just laughed in reply.

“I’m not just joking. The phrase ‘thank you’ never actually left your mouth. I did pull you back from the way of a moving car. A quickly moving car, if I might add.” Mindy kept rambling to make sure Danny got the point. “They kinda looked like they’d just as easily run you down. You would have been a pretty quick speed bump for them. I’m not sure they’d care if there was another dead American in their path. I mean –“

“Oh my God! Okay. I get it. Thank you, Mindy. I genuinely appreciate you pulling me from the street,” Danny replied, appeasing her.

Mindy glanced at him smugly as their drinks arrived in front of them. Danny lifted his glass toward Mindy. “Really though, thank you.” Mindy smiled brightly and clinked glasses with him. They both took a big sip of their ales.

“Ugh, gross. It’s warm,” Danny whined.

Mindy gaped at him. “Uh, yeah, it’s England.” She shook her head and laughed at him. “Okay, be real with me, did you do any research on England before you came over here?”

Danny laughed along with her, “It seems like I didn’t, right?” After a beat, Danny asked, “So what’s your story?”

Mindy looked up at him. “What’s my story? Umm…meaning what, exactly?”

“You know, your story! Where are you from? Why are you here? Blah blah blah.”

“So elegantly phrased there, Daniel. Hmm.” Mindy took a drink. “I’m from Boston. I’m here because I wanted to enjoy my summer before my fun summers are few and far between.” Upon noticing Danny’s confused look, Mindy continued. “I’m going to graduate next spring. My post-grad plans seem rather, um, time consuming. So I figured if I wanted the chance to see the world, I might as well do it now. You? I mean, I already know you’re from New York.”

Danny nodded, “Yeah. More precisely I’m from Staten Island. But I’m pretty much here for the same reason. I was going to stay home and work this summer, try to help my mom around the house and all that, but she wouldn’t let me.”

Mindy furrowed her brow, staring back at him. “She wouldn’t let you?”

“She recently came into some money. One of her single aunts had died and left her some money or something. I have used a lot of the money I’ve made to help her out since my dad isn’t around. So I guess in return, she demanded I go on this trip. She used to go to Italy a lot with her parents as a kid and she wanted me to see the world too. And also, I’m going to graduate too and be pretty preoccupied.”

“What’s going to be preoccupying you?” Mindy asked, surprised she was carrying on a real conversation with him.

“I’m applying for medical school. Good luck permitting, I’ll be med school bound in the fall.” Mindy was staring him down with a baffled look on her face. “What?” he asked, wiping his face to make sure nothing was there.

“That’s my plan too. That’s fairly ridiculous.”

Danny shrugged, “I’d say stranger things have happened.”

“Yeah, like you conquering your fear of heights…” Mindy prompted.

Danny started sputtering out random syllables. “I uh, don’t know what you mean.”

Mindy smiled and shook her head. “Please, you were sweating buckets. Your hair was all messed up like you’d been running your fingers through it nervously. You looked like you were ready to jump into the Thames rather than take the stinking ride.”

Danny appraised her. She seemed pretty perceptive.  Danny couldn’t let her have the upper hand again though. He leaned in and dropped his voice, “So do you pay that close attention to everyone or just people you’re attracted to?”

Mindy gasped. She couldn’t believe he’d pulled that on her. “Umm, full of yourself much?” It wasn’t her best comeback ever, but she was glad she got out any kind of response. They both laughed it off a little and went back to drinking their drinks.

They kept chatting. Two more rounds were ordered. Suddenly they knew a hell of a lot about the other person’s life. Turned out when Danny wasn’t being an asshole, he was a fairly funny and friendly guy. Who knew? Danny stood up suddenly, saying, “Listen, I need to run to the bathroom. Watch my drink for me?”

Mindy tilted her head sideways and laughed. “Danny I don’t think you need to worry about getting roofied.”

“I just, I, uh,” Danny stuttered, “It’s just what you say. Okay?”

Mindy kept laughing at him. She motioned her thumb toward the bathroom. “I’m kidding, just go!” Danny patted the back of her chair and walked off. Mindy wasn’t alone long before someone was leaning against the bar to talk to her.

“Hello there. I noticed you sitting there and I was wondering if I could buy you a drink?” Mindy looked up into the eyes that the accent belonged to. He was gorgeous. He was tall and lean with dark hair. He was pretty much sex personified in Mindy’s mind.

“I’m sorry but I don’t accept drinks from strange men,” Mindy replied craftily.

“Well let me fix that for you. My name is Jeremy. Jeremy Reed,” he said, holding out his hand for a shake.

Mindy cocked one eyebrow and looked at him shrewdly. “Well Jeremy Jeremy Reed. Why should I let you buy me a drink?”

“Because it would be a bloody shame for a beautiful American woman like yourself to buy your own drinks tonight. Plus, I’m sure you’d find the company more than scintillating,” Jeremy answered with a wink.

Mindy could feel herself blushing and looked away to scan the pub. She spotted Danny hesitating at a booth nearby. She gave him a questioning glance. He shrugged and started to walk back toward the bar.

Mindy turned back to Jeremy and put her hand on his wrist. “I’m very flattered, but I already have a drink. And someone buying them for me. So…thank you. But no thank you.”

Jeremy looked at her like she was the biggest fool in the world. “I don’t see anyone buying you drinks.” Right at that moment, Danny stepped back up to the bar. He stopped right next to Mindy and kissed her on the temple. “Did I miss anything important while I was gone, Babe?”

Mindy paused and looked up at Danny incredulously. She shook her head to clear it and replied, “Nope. I was just meeting new friends.” Jeremy looked from Danny to Mindy and back again. He stuck out his hand again. “Well it was lovely to meet you. Perhaps another time.”

Mindy went in for the shake this time. “Nice to meet you too.” Jeremy nodded his head to Danny as he walked away from the bar. Danny plopped himself down in his chair and looked back at Mindy.

“Brits. Am I right?”

Mindy laughed. “You know? I bet they say the same thing about you.” Danny laughed in agreement.

“So what was up with him?”

“Nothing really. He offered to buy me a drink. He said I was too beautiful to be buying my own drinks. He kind of gave off a manwhore vibe though, to be honest.”

“I’m not surprised. I could have told you that by how tight his shirt was. Clearly trolling for something,” Danny said, looking at Jeremy from across the bar. Danny looked back at Mindy. “Did you inform him that you already had someone generously buying you drinks all night?”

“Oh God. Is this you fishing for thanks again? You really need to get over yourself,” Mindy said, sighing.

“No, no. I just was curious if my little act made sense.”

Mindy smiled at Danny. “Actually it did. Thanks for your help by the way.”

Danny returned her smile. “Anytime.” He reached out and placed his hand on her forearm. “You ready for another round?” Danny asked happily. Mindy just nodded in reply.

Danny flagged down the bartender. When he removed his hand to pay the man, Mindy was shocked by how much his touch had affected her. She could still feel the heat from where his hand had been. She had been impressed by Danny kissing her head to get Jeremy to leave. She had felt a jolt as he did it. She felt the same jolt when he gently touched her arm.

She wanted to chalk it up to the fact that she’d been single for a while and that the attention was nice. She was worried though, that it might not be the only reason. She couldn’t deny that they’d had a good time at the pub tonight. As she looked at Danny, she wondered if she was actually starting to develop feelings for him. Damn, what a difference a day makes.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's maybe a little long. Let me know what you think! Thanks for reading!! :)


	4. Paris

After a week, they bid farewell to England and took the train to France. Mindy sat down in her seat, buzzing with excitement to finally go to Paris. She couldn’t wait for all the amazing things to do there. Obviously one of the biggest things she wanted to do was see the Eiffel Tower and go to the top.

She watched the people file through the car to get to their seats. She was always anxious of who was going to sit next to her. Would it be someone cool or would she be miserable for the duration of the trip? It was a dangerous game to play. Sometimes people were just smelly and rude.

Mindy pretended to be reading her book when someone stopped at her row. She glanced up slowly like she couldn’t care less who was sitting there. As she looked up she saw a very gorgeous and well-dressed man putting his bag on the rack above her head. She kept telling herself to stop staring but she couldn’t. He sat down in the seat next to her and glanced over at her. She smiled embarrassedly at him. He smiled an amazingly bright smile back.

“Hi,” he said rather shyly.

She gave a small laugh and said hi back. She pretended to go back to reading her book again but her mind was moving way too fast to focus on her stupid book. She started to turn, deciding to engage him in conversation when someone beat her to it.

“Hi, Sir. Listen, when we were purchasing tickets I think they messed them up. I was wondering if you would switch me seats so I could sit next to my fiancée,” Danny asked the handsome man next to Mindy. She could kill Daniel Castellano right now and not even feel guilty.

Her seatmate looked over at her and looked back at Danny. In his amazing British accent he replied, “Of course. You should sit by your fiancée. I’ll just take your seat.”

Danny sighed dramatically and shook the man’s hand. “Thank you so much sir!”

“Of course. You two have a nice trip,” he said, grabbing his bag and walking to the next car.

Danny sat down next to Mindy and sighed again. “Well helped you dodge that bullet.”

Mindy stared at him, mouth agape. Finally she righted herself and punched Danny in the arm. “Are you kidding me, Castellano? Did you see that man? He was perfect.”

“You thought that guy from the bar last week was pretty attractive too but you didn’t care when I lied then. I figured it was the same deal. Plus then we can sit next to each other for the two hours we have to be on this train. Instead of strangers…”

Mindy shook her head sadly. “Yeah, fine. But if you fall asleep and I missed out on my chance to have some hot British man woo me just so you can sleep, I might actually kill you.”

Danny held two fingers up in surrender. “Scout’s honor.”

“Is that the Boy Scouts sign?” Mindy asked curiously.

“I don’t know. I was never a boy scout. My ma told me if I wanted to sell cookies door to door, I better be getting more than some stupid patches for that effort.”

Mindy furrowed her brow and laughed. “I’m pretty sure it’s _girl_ scouts that sell the cookies. I think your mom played you.”

Danny looked thoughtful for a moment and then laughed to himself. “Well it wouldn’t be the first time that happened.” He paused and adjusted in his seat so he could see her better. “So what are you excited for in Paris?”

Mindy mimicked his movements and looked at him thoughtfully. “I think what most girls who go to Paris are excited for…”

“The Eiffel Tower,” They both said at the same time.

“Yep. What are you excited for?” Mindy asked cheerily.

“Nothing.”

“Nothing? You’re not excited for _anything_ in Paris?” Mindy asked skeptically.

“If I tell you, you’ll just make fun of me,” Danny replied defensively.

“That’s probably true. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t tell me. Come on! You baby!”

“Oh my God! Fine!” Danny nearly shrieked. He paused and took a breath. “I’m excited to see Notre Dame.”

“Why would I make fun of you for that? I liked that movie as a kid too. It’s a lot creepier to watch now, to be honest,” Mindy said.

“What movie?”

“What do you mean what movie? The Hunchback of Notre Dame? Have you never seen that?” Danny shook his head. “What? Who are you? Wait, then why are you particularly excited to see that?”

“I can’t just be excited to see an old, beautiful church?” Danny inquired.

“No. That’s so lame. That’s what like 50 year olds are excited to see on trips. You should say you’re excited to go to the Louvre or something.”

“Ugh. Art? Kill me.”

Mindy gaped at him. “You’re insane. Also, I can see in your eyes that you’re going to try to get me to go to mass or something with you at Notre Dame, and I can tell you now, Danny, it ain’t happening.”

“It’s a really beautiful place, Mindy. From pictures and stuff, at least.”

“I will maybe go on a tour with you but I will not be going to mass with you. I’m putting my foot down.”

“I bet if some hot Parisian was there, you’d jump in line.”

“You may not be too far off…” Mindy agreed.

**

Mindy fell asleep not long after their conversation, missing the entire trip out of London and into Paris. When she woke up, she found herself with her head on Danny’s shoulder and his jacket draped across her. After actually getting to know him, Mindy was astonished at how different Danny was from the grump she met the first day. She was upset about missing the Chunnel but Danny reassured her that she didn’t miss much.

“It was just a tunnel,” he had offered.

After getting settled in at their hotel in Paris, the whole group was required to have dinner together. Dr. Jones was joining them. More importantly, he was also paying for them. Mindy was going to have to get used to French meals. To start off she just ordered the thing that seemed furthest from snails. During their meal, everyone decided that they were determined to go to the Eiffel Tower after dinner. Everyone was dying to see it.

As they were buying tickets to go to the top, Mindy looked around to find Danny. She couldn’t spot him anywhere in the group. She started to get a little worried. Finally she saw him on a bench a few yards away. She saw the same look on his face that she did when they all decided to go on The Eye.

“Mindy, you want a ticket right?” one of the girls asked. Mindy looked from her back to Danny sitting all by himself. He looked a bit pitiful. 

Mindy turned back, saying, “Thanks, Kelly, but nope.” Mindy started to walk off toward Danny when Kelly grabbed her by the arm.

“All you’ve been talking about is how much you want to go to the top,” she prodded.

Mindy nodded. “I know. But I’m just going to enjoy the view from down here.” She turned away from the group and ambled over to where Danny was sitting.

“Hey. You want to get some ice cream, or whatever they call it here? I’m pretty sure I saw a shop that sold it not far from here.”

Danny looked up at her with curiosity written all over his face. “What about going to the top?”

“Eh, I can see the city by walking through it,” Mindy answered, echoing the words he’d said back in London.

Danny smiled at her and stood up, following her. She realized how closely they were walking together and she looped her arm through his.

After getting their ice cream, they found a bench with an impressive view of the Eiffel Tower. They sat there, watching the lights come on. At 10:00 the light show started and they were dazed by the beauty of the twinkling lights.

Danny looked over at Mindy and saw the huge grin on her face. “Thank you, Mindy.” She looked over at him interestedly. “You know, for not leaving me alone…” Danny finished.

She smiled at him and then looked back at the tower. “I don’t know what you mean.” When she quickly glanced back at him, she couldn’t ignore the bright smile he was sporting. She also couldn’t ignore the way he scooted closer to her on the bench right before he leaned in and kissed her on the cheek.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm glad people seem to be enjoying this! Please feel free to tell me what you liked about it! Reading comments makes my day! :)


	5. Paris, Part Deux

The bass was pounding as they stepped in the club. The dingy hole in the wall had seemed a bit of a bad choice from where they stood outside, but upon entering, the place showed some promise. As Danny walked in, he felt a little out of his element. If he was going to try and actually show off his moves here, he was going to need some liquid courage first.

The main thing he was worried about was impressing Mindy. He’d been doing his best to show her that he wasn’t the asshole she met the first day. He kept trying to make her laugh or show her his chivalrous side. He could see her warming up to him. After events in London, she would actually initiate spending time together. It had been two weeks since she had skipped the top of the Eiffel Tower to keep him company. He didn’t care how much she protested, he knew she did it for him. He couldn’t express how touched he was by that gesture. He certainly knew he could never express it to her. She probably just thought of him as a friend. She had never acknowledged the little kiss he gave her that night. Granted, if she had, he would have lied and said it was just a friendly thing.

He couldn’t really deny it anymore; he had feelings for Mindy Lahiri. He didn’t know when exactly they developed into what they are. All he knew was that he only felt like spending time with her. It was weird to him because he’d really only known her for a bit over two weeks. That was really fast. But then again, she was a really amazing person.

She was close behind him as they pressed their way into the club. The whole group wanted to go out and celebrate their last night in Paris. Danny was headed toward the bar when he noticed most of the girls headed toward the dance floor. He looked back and Mindy was with the girls. She made eye contact with him and pantomimed drinking to him. He nodded, acknowledging that he would buy her a drink.

He stood at the bar watching her dance with the other girls. She looked so happy. Her happiness was certainly contagious. He’d felt happier on this trip than he had most of his life. She was like this ray of sunshine that brought light to every person she met.

Mindy may not have had a lot of rhythm on the dancefloor, but she certainly had enough energy that it didn’t even matter. She started scanning the crowd. When she spotted him she gestured for him to join her. He pointed back to the bar to tell her that he was waiting on drinks. In reality, he’d been so caught up watching her that he hadn’t even ordered them yet.

It took a bit of time to get the drinks ordered. Danny’s French was subpar at best and the music was so loud that the guy could barely hear him anyway. When he turned back toward the dancefloor, he felt his stomach drop. He was looking at Mindy all up against some French guy. What the hell? It just confirmed everything he already thought. Mindy clearly didn’t feel the same way about him. Danny was ready to fight the guy. That or leave. He hadn’t determined which impulse was stronger.

He chugged his drink and Mindy’s for good measure before he started stalking toward her. The floor was insanely crowded. People kept getting in his way, preventing him from stopping the madness. He was trying to navigate around some woman when she started dancing with him. He tried to tell her that he wasn’t interested but with his lackluster French, nothing was coming through. He looked over at Mindy who was still dancing with the random Frenchman. “To hell with it,” he said, stepping closer to the woman and matching her pace. If Mindy didn’t care about him, it shouldn’t matter if he dances with some random girl in a club.

**

Mindy looked over and spotted Danny all up on some random woman. She could feel her stomach contracting and she felt mildly ill for a second. He was supposed to be getting them drinks and instead he was doing this? But damn could he move. Where the hell had he been hiding that? Mindy turned away from the guy who had been dancing near her. He had just randomly approached her and the other girls just encouraged her to go along with it. She walked away from the dance floor and rounded nearer to Danny. She didn’t know what she was going to do once she got close to him. Probably she was going to claw that bitch’s eyes out and then jump in line with him.

Mindy stopped in her tracks and thought for a second. Where the hell was all of this coming from? Yes, she’d spent a lot of time with Danny, particularly just the two of them. That didn’t mean they were a couple. The closest they’d gotten to couple status was some friendly touching and one kiss on the cheek. That meant nothing. She’d escalated everything in her mind. As she stared dispassionately at Danny dancing with this girl, she realized that’s probably what he wanted from the trip. He probably wanted random hookups that he could go back and brag about to all his buddies. Mindy didn’t want to be that person.

She wondered how she’d been so messed up to think that they’d been growing closer and that she actually had feelings for him. Maybe she did have feelings for him. But right now those feelings included disgust, anger, and confusion.

Mindy looked around the club. She had been so excited to come out and party. She had admittedly been hoping to do that with Danny though. As she surveyed the place, she saw it for what it really was. It wasn’t the magical, coolly lit, haven for dancing and romance that she’d perceived coming in to it. Now she saw the cracks in the walls, the wet floors from spilled drinks, the men creeping on women too much younger than them. She’d had enough. Without looking back at Danny, Mindy walked out the door and into the night.

She stopped right outside the club to gather her thoughts. She tried to remember if she really knew how to get back to their hotel. They’d come from there but they’d taken some detour because one of the guys wanted to meet up with some girls he’d met. As she was standing there trying to figure everything out, she heard the door open.

“Are you crazy? You’re gonna go through Paris by yourself at night?” Mindy whipped around to see Danny standing there lecturing her. “Have you seen Taken?”

Mindy was aghast. “Where’d you leave your model?” It came out sounding exactly as jealous and upset as she felt. There was no way to hide it.

Danny stepped closer to her saying, “I saw you leave and I didn’t want you to go anywhere alone. That’s dangerous.”

Mindy choked back all the words she wanted to say to him. “Wow. Danny you’re such a great _friend_ ,” Mindy replied, making sure the stress was apparent. She saw a look of hurt briefly flit across Danny’s face before he tamped it down.

He shrugged, heading off in the direction of the hotel. “What are friends for?”

Their hotel wasn’t terribly far from the club. They walked back in stony silence. Mindy kept going over everything in her head. Had she really just made up their closeness? She’d barely spent any real time with anyone else on the trip in favor of getting to know Danny. She thought that they had an actual friendship, a friendship that could translate back to the States. Tonight proved to her that she couldn’t be more wrong. Theirs was merely a friendship of convenience.

When they got to their floor, Mindy started walking straight to her room. Danny grabbed her arm and stopped her before she could go in. Mindy turned around and gave him an annoyed look.

“Hey, are you okay?” he asked gently.

Mindy shrugged halfheartedly. “Sure. Why wouldn’t I be?”

Danny evaluated her for a beat before responding. “You just…you don’t seem like you.”

Mindy wrenched her arm out of his hand and said, “What makes you think you know me?” With that, she turned into her room and slammed the door behind her. She sank down against the wall in her room and started to cry.

The next morning, Mindy laid in bed thinking. She’d barely slept the night before. She rolled over and looked at the clock. They weren’t leaving until the early afternoon and it was only 7:00.  She crawled out of bed and put on clothes. It was her last day in Paris and she wanted some damn pastries to make her feel better.

She wandered along the streets she’d traveled in the two weeks she’d been there. But walking by the shops and restaurants that she had before made her remember who she’d been with then. Suddenly she knew exactly where she wanted to go before going back to the hotel and leaving France.

As she looked upon Notre Dame, she understood why Danny would love it so much. It was actually beautiful. She stood in the courtyard, not yet ready to go in. She’d made herself believe that if she came here maybe she could feel closer to Danny. But as she stood there, taking in the place around her, she just regretted that she had blown off visiting it with him to go shopping. She sighed deeply, readying herself to go back to their hotel and carry on to their next destination with all the awkwardness that would ensue.

“Mindy?” She turned around to the sound of her name and saw Danny standing a few yards behind her. “What are you doing here?”

“What are _you_ doing here?”

Danny walked closer to her before he started explaining. “I wanted to go to mass here one more time before we left…” She just nodded in reply. Before she knew what was really happening, she was following him in to the cathedral and into a pew.

“I hate you, Castellano,” she whispered to him.

She could feel him tense beside her before he looked back at her. “Why?”

“You got me to go to freaking church with you after I expressly said it wouldn’t happen.”

Danny smiled at her and squeezed her hand where it rested on the pew. As he knelt down to pray before the mass started, Mindy could feel it all creeping back. Was it possible that last night had just been a hiccup? She sat there hating herself, knowing that her feelings for Daniel Castellano were far from disappearing. With one grin in her direction, she knew whatever they had certainly wasn't over.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed this!  
> It was kind of hard for me to write this chapter because I just had different things I wanted to tell. That's partially why it ended up being so long. But I am excited about what I have planned next so bear with me!  
> I appreciate all the comments! Getting them is the best!


	6. Florence

Mindy felt at peace. She was sitting in the rooftop garden of their hotel looking over the city of Florence. The sun was bathing over her as she took in the beauty of the place. Even with all the places they’d already been, Mindy just felt so in awe of it all.

Mindy looked over at Madison as she set down her drink. They both took sips of their coffees as they continued to overlook Florence. Mindy could see Madison staring at her from the corner of her eye. She chose to ignore it. Finally Madison sighed and asked, “Okay so I have to ask. What is the deal with you and Danny?”

Mindy turned and looked at her incredulously. “What do you mean?” She knew there was some truth to what Madison was asking, but she also wanted to know what everyone else thought. Surely Madison had been talking to others about it. Mindy would have done the exact same thing if the roles were reversed.

“Oh come on Mindy. It’s so obvious that there’s something going on between the two of you! You spend all your time together! We had that day in Venice and you guys rode on a gondola together! That’s like the most romantic thing in the history of time.”

Mindy smiled to herself. “Well Danny always wanted to go on one but he didn’t want to go alone. Plus it’s not like he was about to ask one of the guys to go with him. So I just tagged along.”

“Ugh. Fine, don’t admit anything,” Madison sighed, dropping things and letting the silence resume.

Mindy thought back to the night in Venice. Yet again, they’d separated from the group. Granted, most of the group had broken down into twos and threes so it may not have been as noticeable. As they walked the streets of Venice, they passed a gelato cart. Danny had noticed Mindy’s eyes light up at the sight of it. They got their gelato, which Danny had paid for, and they kept walking. They seemed content to just stroll by places aimlessly.

They never brought up the fight they’d had. She never wanted to acknowledge that she’d been that jealous. He either didn’t want to bring it up or didn’t think it was a big deal. Everything had basically gone back to normal. They still hung out together constantly, they still left the group almost every day, and they still laughed and made fun of each other like friends do. Nothing had really changed.

They were walking near one of the canals when Danny stopped her. A big part of Mindy, a bigger part than she’d like to admit, thought maybe he was going to kiss her. Instead, he pointed at the gondola and mentioned that he’d always wanted to go on one. Mindy immediately rejected the idea. She knew that it was exactly the type of romantic thing that would haunt her when nothing happened between them. He begged her and she caved quickly. It did seem like fun after all.

They paid an eyebrow raising amount for a short ride. The gondolier took off and sang to his heart’s content. He was singing in Italian so Mindy knew none of what he was saying, but there was a small smile playing across Danny’s face that made Mindy think he understood it. It really was a romantic little ride. Mindy cursed herself for giving in so easily.

Danny looked so at ease. It wasn’t a sight Mindy was used to seeing. Even when they were just roaming around places or hanging out, Danny always looked the tiniest bit tense. He seemed happy, but like he was waiting for something bad to happen. When they disembarked the gondola and thanked the man, Mindy nodded slowly to herself in recognition of the fact that yet again, nothing had happened between them.

Mindy was brought back to the present by the sounds of other people joining them on the roof. Pretty much the rest of the group had found the place that Mindy had already determined as her personal haven. She got up and stood with them at the wall, commenting with them on how pretty everything was. It was becoming a tradition when they entered each new city. Everyone had to take a moment to say the most cliché things possible.

Dr. Jones led the group through the city from art museum to art museum. Mindy was particularly impressed with Florence. Italy was quickly capturing her heart and they’d only been in the country for a matter of days. She sensed a metaphor there but she didn’t really want to explore it further.

They were all taking a break in the square outside the last museum they’d visited. The group had somehow separated into guys and girls. The girls were all chatting happily. Mindy was pretty much just tuning them out. She was staring at Danny where he stood in the group of guys. They were all laughing about something. Mindy smiled as she saw the happiness grace his face. She hated that yet again she was such a sucker for a guy, but as she thought about all the things they’d done together, she realized that any rational person would have started falling for him too.

“Mindy what are you staring at?” Kelly asked.

Mindy shook herself out of her daze. “Oh nothing. Just some Italian,” Mindy replied with a smug smile.

**

Night had fallen on Florence and Mindy had retreated to her haven. She didn’t think she was lame for not wanting to go out with everyone else. She had plenty of time to explore. All she really wanted to do was sit and take in her surroundings. She didn’t think she’d be able to do that very well at a loud bar. They were going to be in Florence for a week before they moved on and she would have time to go see the nightlife. For now, she just wanted to be a casual observer and have a calm night. Mindy really shouldn’t have been surprised when Danny joined her up on the roof.

“You didn’t feel like going out with the rest of them?” Mindy asked, uncharacteristically shy.

Danny looked at her skeptically. “Well you weren’t going so…”

Mindy smiled, taking the glass of wine he was extending to her. Danny continued, “Besides, they were talking about going to another club and that last one kinda sucked.” Mindy whipped her head over to look at him. It was the first time either of them brought up the club. She was sure Danny could see the shock written on her face.

Sidestepping the club because she wasn’t sure she wanted to get into that yet, she asked, “How did you know I’d be up here?”

“I saw how happy you were when we all came out here this afternoon. You looked like you’d found your bliss. Also Madison kept going on and on about how obsessed you were with it.”

Mindy laughed and took another sip of her wine. “This wine is really good by the way. Thank you for sharing.” Danny shrugged as he took a drink from his own glass. Mindy was staring out at the city. “It really is such a beautiful view.”

“Yeah,” she heard Danny say almost wistfully. She turned to look at him and he was staring at her. She felt her chest tighten. The look on his face was not one of merely friendship. He took a deep breath and scooted his chair closer to hers.

“Mindy…what do you think is going on here?” he asked her gently.

Mindy was taken aback by how forthright he was actually being. “Honestly, Danny, I don’t know,” she replied. He dropped his head like he was disappointed at her response. It gave her the courage to continue. “What I do know is that I was inordinately angry when I saw you in that club in Paris with that other woman.”

His head popped back up and he looked at her. He seemed to be evaluating her, making sure she had actually said it. “Yeah, well I kinda had the same feeling that night.”

There was this silence that hung between them. They had both bared a little bit of their souls and they seemed to both be calculating how much more they should confess. Danny stood up and leaned against the wall, the city behind him. Mindy stood up to face him. They stared each other down, nearly daring the other to continue.

Mindy couldn’t take it anymore and was the one to break the silence. “I didn’t go up to the top of the Eiffel Tower because I didn’t want you to be alone.”

“I didn’t just kiss you on the cheek that night out of friendship,” Danny confessed.

“The entire time we were on the gondola I was hoping you’d do _something_ , even just hold my hand,” Mindy admitted.

“The entire time we were on the gondola I was fighting the urge to do something.”

They stood there processing the information. “If you really think about this, it doesn’t make sense. We barely know each other,” Mindy said.

Danny stepped away from the wall and closer to Mindy. He reached both his hands out and cupped her face, bringing it in toward his. His lips met hers gently. When she started to kiss him back, the kiss morphed into a more passionate one. Mindy wound her arms around him and his hands were in her hair, keeping her there as their lips moved together frantically. When they finally broke apart, Danny rested his forehead against hers. They were both breathing heavily.

 “Maybe it doesn’t make sense,” Danny started, “But honestly, I don’t care.” He kissed her again, wrapping his arms around her to bring her as close as possible. She didn’t realize they were moving until her legs hit the table behind them. Danny grabbed her hips and lifted her onto the table. One of the wine glasses fell over and Danny pulled away to look. He stepped back and looked at her.

“Is this wrong? Should I have taken you out or something first? I –“

Mindy grabbed him by the shirt, bringing him back to her. When he was kissing her it felt anything but wrong. As he kissed her in one of her new favorite places, the word that kept coming to mind was _perfect_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!! As always, I'd love to hear your thoughts!  
> Sadly, the updates might be slowing down because I'm about to go on vacation. I'm going to try to get at least one more in before I leave!


	7. Florence, Part Due

“Shhh!” Danny whispered. “If you aren’t quieter, someone’s going to hear us!”

Mindy pulled back to glare at Danny. “This isn’t exactly my fault. We could just be walking to my room all unsuspectingly but you were the one who decided to continue things. Sorry if I was enjoying it.”

Danny smirked smugly. “Were you now?”

Mindy rolled her eyes. “You’re an idiot.” She turned around and walked two doors down to her room. She reached in her pocket to fish out her keys but got extremely distracted by the feeling of Danny’s lips on her shoulder. She leaned her head against the door and moaned softly.

“Shh.”

Mindy turned around indignantly, an argument at the ready, but Danny silenced it by kissing her again. Their lips moved slowly against each other’s at first, building into a steadily more heated embrace. Mindy felt her back hit her door as Danny pushed himself closer against her. He moved his mouth from hers to her neck. Mindy moaned again, but Danny didn’t exactly have the heart to quiet her this time.

She ran her fingers through his hair at the nape of his neck, keeping him where he was. Somewhere around her upper thigh she could feel how into to all this he was. She moved her hand down his chest, feeling all the toned muscles there. She kept moving it downward until she was grazing the front of his pants. She felt him inhale quickly against her neck.

He started kissing up her neck and along her jawline before returning to her mouth. “I believe you…had…your keys…” he said, pausing to kiss her.

She kissed him a few more times before pushing him away lightly and turning around to unlock the door. Once in the door, Danny’s hands were immediately on her. He was pushing the door closed and then her up against it. They were kissing passionately, happy to finally be releasing all the pent up feelings they’d had. It didn’t take long for Danny’s hands to roam to her ass or her hands to reach for the hem of his shirt. Mindy tugged at Danny’s shirt and succeeded in pulling it off of him. Danny returned to kissing her but started to undress her as well.

Once she was shirtless, he pulled her to him and picked her up, carrying her to the bed. He laid her down and followed immediately. He was on top of her as she kissed from his neck to his cheek and back. She spread her legs to accommodate him and he ground against her, both of them eager to get on with it. She was running her hands down his back as he was reaching to unhook her bra when the bathroom door opened and Madison walked out of it. They both froze, staring at her in horror.

“And you said nothing was going on. I’m calling your bluff,” Madison said smugly.

Danny practically jumped off Mindy and grabbed both their shirts, throwing hers to her.

As Mindy put her shirt back on she finally found the ability to speak. “I thought you were going out with everyone!”

“I was going to but I started feeling incredibly tired so I decided to stay back. If you need me to leave, I can go find something else to do…”

Danny and Mindy both started shaking their heads awkwardly. “No. No. I just – No,” Mindy stuttered out. She stood up quickly and ushered Danny out of the room. They paused once they were out of the room and Mindy laid her head on Danny’s shoulder.

“Oh my God that was so embarrassing!” Mindy groaned into his shoulder.

“Yeah, also not how I saw that ending…” Danny said, rubbing a hand along her back.

Mindy looked up and kissed him gently. “It wasn’t how I saw it ending either. What if we –“

Danny shook his head answering the question she hadn’t even fully asked. “Grant didn’t go out either.” Mindy groaned again in frustration. “Could you, um, stop making sounds like that?” Danny asked, breathing a little heavier.

Mindy giggled and looked up at him. “Oops. I’ll try.”

Danny grinned and brought her back in to kiss her again. “What should we do now?” he asked pulling back.

Mindy looked thoughtfully at him. “Well, we left that wine upstairs, we could go check that back out…”

Danny turned and put his arm around Mindy. “Sounds like a plan. Shall we?” Mindy smiled brightly at him and started walking back toward the roof.

**

“Oh guys! One more thing while we’re all still together before we go out on our next tour. The hotel arrangements in Rome had to change. The hotel we were in originally had a fire so we got moved to a different one. Unfortunately for this one you’ll have to have roommates again. I tried my best because I know you guys liked having your own rooms in London and Paris, but this was unavoidable. But once we get to Rome tomorrow, I’m sure you’ll all be so captivated by the city that you don’t care. Right?”

Everyone else nodded as Mindy rolled her eyes and fought off groaning again. She locked eyes with Danny who looked just as irritated.

As they wandered around Florence later, they hung to the back of the group. “This is so stupid. I don’t want to have a roommate. Wait! What do you think the chances are that we could talk Dr. Jones into letting us be roommates?” Mindy asked.

“I’d say pretty unlikely,” Danny answered regretfully. He squeezed Mindy’s hand where it was in his. “Hey. Who cares? We’ll figure it out. So we haven’t had sex. They say good things come to those who wait, right?”

Mindy looked at him, unable to tell if he was serious or completely joking. She was hoping it was the latter. “That’s sweet to say, but I feel incredibly sexually frustrated right now. Ugh! Why couldn’t you have just initiated that whole conversation back in Paris when we had our own rooms?”

Danny looked at her incredulously. “Um, I tried to. You brushed me off,” Danny replied, knocking his shoulder into hers.

Mindy stared back at him before replying. “If you are talking about the night we were having our silent fight, that does not count. Not at all.”

“Whatever. We’ll figure it out, okay? I’m happy anything is happening at all.”

“Who are you? Are you male?” Mindy asked disbelievingly. Danny just shook his head at her, laughing. “Okay, Danny, think about it this way. If we end up with roommates in Spain and everything goes the same way it has been here, we may very well go home never having done it.”

Danny stopped and looked at her. “Fine. If that happens then I guess I’ll just have to come to Boston and show you the night of your life.”

“You would do that?” Mindy asked, surprised by talk of this carrying on at home. She of course wanted to, but she didn't really know what this whole thing was for him. 

Danny gave her a confused look. “What are you talking about? Of course I would. You know, I’d do a lot of things for sex,” Danny joked.

Mindy slapped him across the shoulder. “You suck.”

Danny unlaced his hand from hers and wrapped his arm around her, kissing her head. “Whatever. You like it.”

**

“Danny, where are we going? We’re supposed to be watching that documentary! If Dr. Jones sees we’re missing, he might get mad.”

“Please, a quarter of the class is missing and the rest are on their phones. He won’t notice a thing,” Danny reassured her. “Besides, I told him you were feeling sick and I was running out to get you some medicine. So if he asks you tomorrow how you feel, maybe make up a bit of a story.”

Mindy smiled at Danny happily. She shook her head disbelievingly. She still couldn’t believe this was happening. Danny grabbed her hand and headed away from the hotel. They didn’t walk far until they came upon a trattoria with a little outdoor eating area. Mindy thought it looked pretty romantic. She turned around and looked at Danny.

“What is this?”

“I thought maybe I should take you on a real date,” he replied with a shrug followed by a smile.

She wrapped her arms around him and kissed him soundly. Pulling back she looked him in the eyes, saying, “That is so sweet of you. I love it!”

Danny smiled, leaning back in to kiss her quickly. “Well then let’s eat.”

They went and sat down, ordering food and wine, and chatting happily. Mindy was so content in that moment that she almost let slip the three words she was pretty sure she felt but knew were too soon to say. She had no clue that Danny was doing the same thing.   

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I think this one might really be the last one before my vacation! But then again, we'll see what happens tomorrow!  
> I hope you enjoyed this! As always, I'd love to hear your opinions! Everyone's comments are so great to read! I'm not lying when I say they make my day!  
> Thanks for following this story!


	8. Rome

“Mindy, pick up your pace or we’re going to be late!” Danny said, grabbing her hand and dragging her along behind him.

“Danny, you realize that you got me up at an ungodly hour so that I could go to mass with you, right? It’s not exactly something I’m jazzed about.”

Danny turned his head to look back at her. “Min, it’s a mass with the Pope! That’s a big deal!”

“Not for me! I’m not Catholic. The Pope is just some old guy in a dress to me,” Mindy explained.

Danny stopped suddenly to the point where Mindy nearly crashed into him. “Mindy, we’re right outside Vatican City. You can’t say those things here.”

She held up her hands in surrender. “Sorry. Sorry. Let’s keep going. You don’t want to be late.” She grabbed his hand and took the lead.

Danny slowed down and pulled her back toward him. “I’m sorry. Do you really not want to go that badly? We can go get breakfast or something. I was just excited.”

Mindy smiled at him and squeezed his hand. “Danny, it’s fine. You know I just like to complain. You really want to go, so let’s go.” They started walking again. “But I will let you buy me breakfast after!”

Danny laughed and brought her hand up to kiss it. “Sounds like a plan.”

**

“You love old things! Why do you not want to do this?” Mindy whined.

“I love old things? What does that mean?” Danny questioned.

“You know, old things. Churches, movies, cars, old things. You love them. I just assumed you would want to do this.”

“It’s not that I don’t want to recreate Roman Holiday with you, Mindy, that sounds like _so_ much fun –“

“Was that sarcasm? I am sensing sarcasm!” Mindy accused.

“It wasn’t sarcasm. I just don’t really want to rent a scooter to drive around Rome on. Have you seen these drivers? They’re crazy!”

“Oh so you’re scared?” Mindy challenged.

“Scared? Ha! That isn’t it at all,” Danny said unconvincingly.

Mindy stepped closer and reached out to touch his arm. “Are you actually scared, Danny? You can tell me.”

“I’m not scared, Mindy. I just…” Danny started. Sighing he said, “I don’t have a driver’s license.”

“You don’t?”

“No. It’s not really something I like to talk about. In New York it’s pretty common not to have it but it’s still not something I like to advertise,” Danny said, hanging his head.

Mindy ducked to look him in his lowered eyes, “So why did you tell me?”

Picking his head back up, Danny replied, “I don’t know. I guess because I trust you.”

Mindy smiled so brightly. She wrapped him into a hug, not wanting to reveal how touched she was. She thought for a second and pulled back to look at him. “So did you think I wouldn’t make fun of you?”

“Oh no, I definitely thought you’d make fun of me. I just assumed you would eventually let up,” Danny admitted, laughing.

“It would have definitely been my first instinct if you hadn’t seemed so ashamed,” Mindy said, laughing with him. “I guess we can just keep going on the boring tours with the group. Where are they going tomorrow again?”

“The Trevi Fountain in the morning,” Danny answered.

“Huh, I actually wanted to go there. I guess we should do that.”

The next day the whole group stood in front of the famous fountain admiring it.

“Wow. Just look at this architecture,” Danny said in awe.

Mindy snickered, “Wow, you’re such a nerd.” Danny just scowled at her before smiling and walking closer to the fountain.  She followed him and stood with her back to the fountain, ready to make her wish. She looked at Danny. She consciously noted that one of her wishes had kind of already come true. Couldn’t hurt to wish it stays that way. She smiled in his direction before closing her eyes and tossing the coin over her right shoulder.

**

They’d been in Rome for four days and Mindy was pretty much the happiest that she could remember being in a long time. She and Danny may not have actually done the deed yet, as she predicted, but she was feeling pretty content just being with him.

He was so different from the guy she first met. He had seemed like such an incorrigible grump then, but Mindy now realized that it was just a shield. The man behind the grump was one worth getting to know. She could admit that getting to know him while also touring Europe was a pretty amazing deal.

She’d learned so much about Danny as a person. He was fiercely protective and really sarcastic. But honestly, she appreciated his sarcasm. She was getting to the point where she could find a way to appreciate everything about him, even his negative traits. She would reason that they balanced out the positive ones and made him less of a perfect person. She couldn’t handle it if he was completely perfect. At least that’s what she told herself.

The thing that scared Mindy the most about it all was how strongly she felt toward Danny. She’d never been neutral about him, to be fair. At first she hated him. In a quick turn of events, she found herself intrigued by him and more than a little attracted to him. She was scared by how quickly her simple attraction was turning into something more. She couldn’t admit to Danny, or anyone really, that she thought she might love him. They had spent every day for the past month together. Forming a close knit bond was inevitable. Mindy wondered if maybe falling for him was inevitable too.

They had another week in Rome ahead of them before they spent one week in Spain. While Mindy looked forward to the rest of the time they had in Europe, she was nervous to go home. There was a conversation to be had between her and Danny and she currently wanted to avoid it at all costs. She already didn’t want to go home, but the thought of this whole thing with Danny being just a Europe thing made Mindy feel a little sick. She cared about him too much already. She didn’t want it all to be over in two and a half weeks.

**

Danny was really stepping up in the dates department. He had planned rather romantic dates for the two of them pretty often since they’d started whatever this was. Danny had a way of finding quaint little places that made Mindy feel like they were the only people in the world. They’d been told they had a free day when Danny came by her room and whisked her away to lunch.

The phrase “When in Rome, do as the Romans do” seemed particularly apropos as Mindy drank glass after glass of wine all during lunch. Mindy felt like she’d feasted like a queen as they went back to their hotel. Danny was practically holding her up as they strolled in through the lobby. She was sure she hadn’t had _that_ much to drink. She appreciated the proximity though, so she went with it. As they stood on the elevator, Danny leaned in and kissed her head. It was a sweet gesture that left Mindy’s mind buzzing. She was pretty sure her mind was buzzing from that and not the wine.

“We should probably limit these things to nighttime so I don’t feel like I have to take a nap during the afternoon,” Mindy said as she and Danny stepped off the elevator.

“Hey Mindy! There’s someone waiting for you in the room,” Madison announced as she walked down the hall to another person’s room.

Mindy straightened up. Who would be waiting for her? “There is? Who is it?”

“I don’t remember the name. He said he knew you from school. Kelly said she recognized him from campus.”

Mindy looked up at Danny who seemed just as confused and concerned as she did. Mindy grabbed her keys and walked hesitantly to her room. Danny was close behind her.

“Maybe I should go in first,” Danny offered.

Mindy smiled up at him. “It shouldn’t be a big deal. Just stay close behind me, you know, just in case.” Danny nodded.

Mindy unlocked her door and opened it to find possibly the last person she’d want to see waiting for her. It had an incredibly sobering effect on her. Sitting there was her ex-boyfriend, Cliff.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed this latest installment! Sorry it took a bit.  
> I'd love to hear some feedback!  
> Thanks for reading!


	9. Rome, Part Due

Mindy stood there shocked. What the hell was he doing here? How quickly could she get Danny out of the room before they interacted? It took a moment for her to be able to move. Of all the people she’d thought about when Madison said someone was waiting for her, she never expected it to be Cliff. Cliff who dumped her for no apparent reason sometime last spring. She honestly hadn’t thought about him in a while. She certainly hadn’t thought about him since her thoughts started being consumed by Danny.

“Mindy, it’s so good to see you. You look great,” Cliff said, standing up off of her bed. Mindy stood there still unable to speak. Danny looked at her for a second before jumping into action.

“Hi. I’m Danny. And you are?” Danny asked, politely extending his hand for a shake.

Cliff eyed him suspiciously and purposefully didn’t meet Danny’s handshake. “Mindy’s never mentioned me? I’m her boyfriend.”

Danny whipped his head around so fast Mindy thought he’d get whiplash. His eyes looked like they were about to bug out of his head. In an instant, all expression was gone from his face as he tamped it down. Mindy was terrified by the blank expression on his face and how quickly it appeared.

She stepped toward him and grabbed his arm. “Cliff is my _ex_ -boyfriend.” She turned toward Cliff and directed her speech to him, “What are you doing here? You made it pretty clear months ago that you didn’t care about me. What’s with the sudden interest now? Because I’ve moved on?”

Cliff looked at Mindy before sizing up Danny. He wasn’t an idiot, he could see the way Mindy had reassured Danny.

“Look Mindy, I really think we should talk. I’m all the way here in Rome. For you,” Cliff explained.

“You are here because your parents own a villa over here. Don’t make this sound like you came halfway across the world to win me back.”

“How did you know about that?” Cliff asked, astonished.

“Remember when you said you were going to take me to Italy for my birthday and then less than a month later you left me? Yeah. I certainly remember. It was like a week after we broke up that you started dating Heather again. I’m not an idiot Cliff and I have nothing to say to you,” Mindy replied.

Cliff stepped closer to Mindy, ignoring Danny’s presence. “Mindy can we please talk? Please.”

Mindy rolled her eyes. After a long pause she turned to Danny and leaned up to whisper in his ear. “Can you just give me a few minutes? I’ll come find you once I get rid of him.” Danny nodded. He looked at Cliff and started to walk away before turning back to Mindy and grabbing her for a deep kiss. He pulled away and walked out of the room, leaving Mindy’s head spinning.

“What do you want?” Mindy finally asked.

“In a simple answer, you,” Cliff said.

“Do you? What did Heather do to incite this?”

“It has nothing to do with me and Heather and everything to do with me and you. I miss you Mindy. I think we should still be together. It was wrong of me to leave you.”

Mindy shook her head exasperatedly. “Cliff you dumped me _months_ ago and you’re just now feeling like we should be together? Is this because I moved on, because I found someone else?”

“Found someone else? Good one!” Cliff said, chuckling.

“Excuse me?”

“Mindy it’s so obvious what this is. I could tell just by Facebook,” Cliff replied scathingly.

“Oh really, Cliff? And what is this then? And let’s make sure it’s not colored by your jealousy.”

“Please Mindy. Open your eyes; this is obviously just a fling. Why are you giving up on the possibility of us for a stupid fling?”

“It’s not just a fling,” Mindy answered, though her confidence was waning. What if it was just a fling?

“You keep telling yourself what you need to hear. But you know what you could do? You could forget about the random fuckboy of yours and come back to me.”

Mindy gaped at him. “Okay what about this conversation do you think is winning me over? Cliff, need I remind you yet again _you_ left _me_. Don’t delude yourself into thinking it was the other way around. And don’t delude yourself into thinking Danny is just some rebound. It’s not like that. Though I’m guessing that’s what happened between you and Heather…”

Cliff stepped closer to Mindy and reached out for one of her arms before she yanked it back. “Mindy we were really good together.”

“Maybe we were. But yet again, you ended that. I’m not coming back to you Cliff. I’m sorry that you wasted your time.”

“What if we got dinner and just talked like we used to? Maybe you’d see me for who I actually am and not the monster you’ve built me up to be in your mind.”

Mindy laughed at him. “Cliff, I don’t honestly know how you’ve deluded yourself this much. I’ve moved on. You can’t just backslide because your girlfriend broke your heart. Part of me thinks the only reason you’re here and not at some other girl’s doorstep is because you were in Rome with your parents and I was conveniently here.”

“Mindy that’s not it.”

“I don’t care what your reason is honestly. It’s not going to work. I’ve been done being sad over you for a long time now. You have no power over me anymore. You aren’t going to trick me into taking you back. I’ve moved on. I think it’s time you did too.”

Cliff hung his head before finally nodding. He walked to the door before turning around to look at her. “Just remember Mindy, guys aren’t always the heroes you tend to make them out to be.”

Mindy glared at him. “I realize that Cliff. You taught me that.”

He rolled his eyes. “I’m just saying don’t get too attached to this new guy. You’ll only hurt more when it crashes and burns.” Then he left and closed the door behind him.

Mindy stared at the door long after he left. She hated him. Not for breaking up with her months ago and not for coming to desperately win her back. She hated him for voicing her fears. Was it that transparent that even Cliff could see there was nothing substantial between her and Danny? If so, how could Mindy not see it?

After she made Danny leave, she had planned to go find him immediately after Cliff left. Now though, she couldn’t move. She knew if she spent time with Danny all she would do is evaluate everything he said and did. Mindy sat down on her bed glumly. She didn’t know how long she was sitting there before she heard the knock.

She slowly got up and looked through the peephole to see Danny standing there. Of course it was Danny. She opened the door and peeked around it. She could see the look of confusion on Danny’s face.

“So I was sitting down with Grant in the lobby when I saw that guy leave,” Danny explained. Mindy just nodded. Danny looked at her shrewdly. “Are you okay? Did he say something? Should I go find him and beat him up?” Danny asked, grinning at the end.

Mindy smiled halfheartedly. “No. I think the wine from lunch is just catching up to me. I think I’m gonna take a nap.”

Danny nodded. She could tell he was evaluating her. He didn’t believe her but he wasn’t going to call her on it. “Okay. Probably a smart idea. I’ll wake you up for dinner.” Danny was about to leave when he came further into her room and wrapped her in a hug. He held her to him firmly. She nearly started crying. She may not know what they were, but she knew he cared about her. It should be enough to assuage her fears but it just wasn’t. Finally Danny pulled back and cupped her face in his hands, smiling at her. “Enjoy your nap,” he said before leaning forward and kissing her forehead.

As Mindy watched him walk away she felt even worse. She shouldn’t be questioning what was between them. If they only had a few more weeks left together, she should just enjoy the time they had. Mindy wasn’t one of those people though. She didn’t think she was capable of being in a relationship without looking to the future. She felt guilty for lying to Danny and pseudo avoiding him. It wasn’t a complete lie. She was in fact lying down. Sleep wouldn’t come to her though. She was too caught up in her fears. As she laid there she came to the conclusion that maybe Cliff was right. She and Danny had an expiration date.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little angst never hurt anyone right? ;)  
> Thanks for reading! What were your thoughts?


	10. Barcelona

Danny was no idiot. He could tell something was off with Mindy. The thing was, he had no clue where it came from. Well, that was a lie; he knew exactly where it came from. She’d been acting weird since her ex popped up. He thought maybe it would just pass and she would go back to being the normal Mindy from before. A couple of weeks had passed though, and she was still behaving strangely.

He didn’t know what he could do. He kept taking her places he thought she’d enjoy. She would smile and laugh with him, but at the end of the night when he’d walk her to her room, she’d be tense and brief and retreat quickly behind the door and away from him.

It was especially odd when they moved on to Spain. Back in Florence, she’d lamented having roommates because they couldn’t do anything. But having their own rooms in Barcelona was not getting them any closer to doing the deed. Mindy wasn’t bringing it up or initiating anything. Since Danny could tell something was up with her, he decided it was best to leave it alone for the time being. He’d been fine at their current pace anyway. He had made up his mind not to rush things with Mindy after the night Madison had interrupted them. The last thing he wanted to do was come off as a dick again.

He was still spending as much time with Mindy as usual but it didn’t leave him with the same feelings. He cared about Mindy and loved spending time with her, but it was starting to feel one sided. No matter how many times he tried to fix things between them or at least figure out what was wrong between them, nothing worked. Mindy wouldn’t acknowledge that she was acting differently and he eventually stopped trying to bring it up.

It was their last week in Europe before they parted ways. Danny didn’t want to leave with things being weird between them. Ideally, he wanted to continue things with Mindy. He knew that everyone said that long distance relationships don’t work, but he didn’t want to end things with her. He hadn’t told her and he’d barely admitted it to himself, but Danny loved her. It was completely crazy though because they’d only known each other for like a month and a half. He couldn’t deny it though. Every time he looked at her he felt content and at peace. Maybe he should tell her. Maybe that would bring her out of whatever funk she was in.

They’d spent most of their week going on all the tours with their group. It seemed their days of splitting off were over. When Danny asked Mindy why she never wanted to leave the group and go out just them, she wouldn’t really acknowledge it. She just said she was going to miss everyone when the trip ended.

That was how they ended up on the beach with the rest of the group on their last day in Barcelona. Their last day together. Mindy was sitting on her towel chatting with the other girls. Danny was so distracted by Mindy that he forgot Grant was throwing a Frisbee to him until it hit him in the face. He fell back into the sand in front of the girls and only Grant came to see if he was okay. Danny looked over at Mindy before he got up and she was chatting away like she didn’t even notice. Part of him wanted to feign an injury to get her attention. He decided that seemed a bit dramatic and dramatics weren’t quite Danny’s thing.

After a couple of hours, Danny had had enough. Mindy was standing up reapplying sunscreen when Danny took a running start and grabbed her, taking her into the water with him.

“Danny!” Mindy screeched. He thought about tossing her in the water but instead he held her protectively in his arms. He’d missed being this close to her. He’d had a brief taste of it and then all the sudden it was gone. Getting to be like this again was both fun and painful to him. She lightly slapped him but was laughing so he didn’t think she was too mad at him.

“Why did you do that? Now my hair’s gonna be all messed up,” Mindy whined.

“Please, you came to the beach and you haven’t been in the water all day.”

“I just didn’t really feel like it…” Mindy explained weakly. Danny eyed her skeptically. There was something holding her back and for the life of him he still couldn’t figure it out. He knew as she looked at him right now that she wasn’t looking at him the same way she had been before.

“Sorry then,” Danny answered and started walking back toward the beach. His last day in Europe was starting to feel a lot like the first one. He was at odds with Mindy but this time he didn’t think it was his fault. But was it?

**

That night the whole group got together for one big goodbye dinner. The next day they’d be off on their separate ways. Danny would head back to New York and Mindy would head back to Boston. There was a good chance that if he didn’t figure out what was wrong between them, tomorrow could be the last day he ever saw Mindy Lahiri. He couldn’t accept that. He couldn’t fathom having someone as special as Mindy in his life for a few weeks and then never seeing her again.

The dinner was actually pretty fun. Dr. Jones was a spirited guy and he got along with every person in the group. He thanked them all for volunteering to tour Europe with him. He said he was glad to see how many different friendships and bonds were formed through the course of this trip. Danny couldn’t help but look across the table at Mindy. She briefly glanced over at him and he smiled at her. She quickly smiled back before turning her attention back to Dr. Jones. They were apparently toasting to something because everyone was raising their glasses. Danny quickly picked his up and started paying attention.

“This has been a wonderful trip. I hope you learned a lot and experienced even more. I hope this gave you a passion for other cultures and a yearning to return to these places. Thank you for being a wonderful group of people. I have truly enjoyed my time with you all and I hope you have as well. To all of us!” Dr. Jones toasted. They all repeated him and clinked glasses. Mindy didn’t make eye contact with Danny as she clinked his glass.

After dinner, everyone was retreating to their rooms to finish packing. Danny quickly grabbed Mindy by the arm to lead her away from everyone else. This was his chance. Tomorrow would be full of goodbyes and awkward exchanges and he wanted to know where they stood before that.

“Danny what are you doing?”

“Just follow me, okay?”

Mindy followed him silently where he led her to the courtyard behind their hotel. It was pretty scenic. It wasn’t exactly a rooftop garden, but Danny hoped it would do the same trick. He walked over the fountain and sat down on the flat part in front of it. He motioned for Mindy to sit down next to him but she wouldn’t.

“What’s going on, Danny?”

Danny looked at her incredulously. “What’s going on? We’re leaving tomorrow. I thought we could finally have a moment alone before then.” Mindy still wouldn’t sit. She folded her arms across her chest and stood resolutely where she was. Danny stood up from the fountain and matched her position as he tried to evaluate her mood. An overwhelming feeling of fear came over him. He feared that this was his last moment with her and that after parting ways at the airport, she’d go on to be a distant memory from a random trip. As she stood there unwilling to communicate with him, he knew he couldn’t tell her how he felt. She wouldn’t believe him or wouldn’t reciprocate it and Danny didn’t really know which would be worse.

He stood there another moment longer before the restraint in him snapped and he closed the gap between them and brought her lips to his. He kissed her deeply, pouring all of the feelings he’d been holding back into the kiss. He was trying to convey all that he felt to her especially if this was it for them. She finally responded and wrapped her arms around his back. Too quickly though, she broke apart and rested her forehead against his.

She sighed, saying, “I have to go pack.”

Danny pulled back and looked at her. “I’m packed. Why don’t I come help you?”

Mindy looked at him apprehensively for a second before smiling halfheartedly and responding. “That’s okay. You probably want to get some sleep. Long day of traveling tomorrow.”

“No, Min, I don’t –“

“It’s okay, Danny. I’ll see you in the cab tomorrow morning,” Mindy replied walking away from him. Danny had missed his moment. Maybe he could convince her at the airport.

**

Everyone was jamming into the van, ready to depart back to the United States. It was reminiscent of the first cab ride they took as Danny and Mindy were wedged in together. This time when Mindy wouldn’t look at him, it hurt him instead of confusing him. He still had no clue what was going through her mind.

When they were going into the airport, Danny reached to take one of Mindy’s suitcases for her. She wrenched it back, grunting that she was fine. Danny slowed down and let her pull ahead. He continued his mental dance of wracking his brains to figure out where the hell they went wrong.

Turned out the gate to go back New York and Boston were somewhat near each other. Danny couldn’t take it any longer. He was running out of time to tell Mindy what he felt. He was hoping if he just put it all on the line like he had in Florence that they could work it out.

Mindy was walking to her gate when Danny caught up to her. He grabbed her hand and she quickly turned around to see who it was. Her look of confusion and slight fear didn’t change when she saw it was Danny. He squeezed her hand in the comforting way he’d done so many times before. It seemingly made no difference.

“Hey. Can we…talk?” Danny asked hesitantly. She looked him in the eye, evaluating him. This was his moment. He needed to tell her that he loved her and that he wanted to see her once they were home. He had plans in his mind beyond that but there was no way he could let those get voiced. He just needed to tell her that he loved her. Because he did. He loved her.

Mindy nodded slowly. “Yeah. We need to talk.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bear with me guys!  
> Thanks for reading! I appreciate the comments and would love to hear what you thought of this chapter too!! :)


	11. Barcelona, Part Dos

Mindy steeled herself for what she was about to do. It had been a long time coming. She should have done it sooner so maybe she could have felt less guilty throughout her last week in Europe. But she couldn’t let Danny break her heart. If she didn’t do it herself, then this relationship would play out like all the rest of them. She would have fallen for the guy only to have him leave her high and dry as usual.

She could see that Danny seemed upset. Maybe he didn’t want to be the one to pull the trigger on their relationship. It was a good thing that she’d never told him that she loved him. It would have only made this intensely more uncomfortable.

Mindy could feel the muscles in her abdomen clenching as she drew the strength to do what she really didn’t want to. She had to though. She wouldn’t let him tell her she was just a fling. She didn’t want him to see her cry over him if he never even got attached.

She could tell he had been trying to get her alone all week. She figured he wanted to seal the deal, as it were. She couldn’t do it though. She couldn’t make it an actual fling. Later when she got home, she could convince herself it was something real if they hadn’t flung. She refused to be drawn in to the game, instead making sure they were always around the rest of the group. She kept telling him she was going to miss the group but in reality, she was trying not to let her think about how much she was going to miss him. How much she was already missing him.

Danny drew her further away from people and took a deep breath. That was her cue. She had to beat him to the punch.

“We should end this,” she said. It wasn’t the most eloquent, but it got the point across. Danny looked like the wind had been taken out of his sails.

“What?” he choked out.

“I mean it’s just a fling right? Why let us pretend there was anything deeper here? It was just born of convenience.”

Danny gaped at her. Were there tears forming in his eyes? Surely not.

Mindy continued on, “This is what you wanted, right? Just some casual relationship through Europe. Something to brag about back home but not have weigh you down. Who wants long distance relationships anyway? They don’t work. And this really wouldn’t work in reality anyway. We just thought it was fun and that we were good for each other because we were suspended in a fantasy land. Is anything even real on a vacation?” She felt like she couldn’t stop talking.

“Mindy, I think you should hear me out,” Danny started. Mindy wouldn’t hear it.

“That’s okay, Danny. You don’t need to explain yourself to try and feel better later. We had fun, right? That’s all that it was. Fun.”

“No.”

Mindy closed her eyes. She couldn’t look at him anymore. He looked hurt. Was there a chance he _wasn’t_ going to end it? Mindy’d already come too far in her speech to consider it. Surely he was just going to end things and didn’t want her to take the reins on it.

“Danny, this is really for the best. Why carry on something that has an expiration date?” Mindy asked. She still couldn’t look at Danny. She could feel the tears building behind her eyes. She needed to wrap this up soon because she definitely didn’t want him to see her cry.

“Mindy, please, just let me talk,” Danny pleaded. “I think you’ll want to hear what I have to say.”

“I doubt it. Thanks for all the good times, Danny. This trip was really great because of it…” Mindy trailed off, her voice getting smaller.

Danny looked pained. She couldn’t think about it. She already had tears leaking from her eyes. She smiled weakly at him and squeezed his hand before she walked off toward her gate.  For a second she almost turned around to have one more look at him. She knew that was a bad idea though. She was pretty close to running back at him and throwing herself in his arms and saying she was lying about it all. But he didn’t want her. No one ever did. She couldn’t extend the delusion to back home. They’d been a relationship of convenience. That was it.

As she boarded her plane, she was in full on breakdown mode. The tears wouldn’t stop flowing. It made no sense. She’d known him for less than two months. She couldn’t rationally explain how she fell in love with him so fast. She couldn’t explain why she felt like she had just lost her best friend. Anyone who listened to her story would think she was crazy. Luckily, no one really asked. Everyone just avoided her gaze or stared at her openly with looks of pity and concern. One flight attendant asked her if she was okay. When Mindy feebly answered yes, probably unconvincingly so, the lady brought her an extra blanket and snuck her extra cookies in her lunch.

Mindy wanted to pull it together before she got back to Boston. Her parents wouldn’t understand why she was so devastated. Her friends would probably look at pictures of Danny and tell her she was insane for letting that go. But every time Mindy thought she’d done the last of her crying, more tears sprang to her eyes.

She couldn’t get the image of his hurt expression out of her mind. It was for the best. That’s what she kept telling herself. Next year would be hard enough. And then med school would be insane. She didn’t need someone tying her to a long distance relationship that didn’t have a real foundation to it. It didn’t matter that she loved him because Mindy would bet almost everything she had that he wouldn’t have returned her feelings. She wasn’t one of those girls who could find lasting relationships like that. Those kind of crazy and wonderful things just never happened to her. Danny was a fluke. He was a fluke that she thought was something that truly was nothing. And that was the story of her life.

Once Mindy returned home, she just felt exhausted. She was mainly emotionally exhausted, but she claimed jetlag. It was a real thing. People would be much more likely to accept that she was jetlag than to accept that she was heartbroken over a boy she barely knew.

She couldn’t look at pictures from her trip. Everything reminded her of Danny. She saw the pictures from London and Paris and remembered the spark and the hope she felt that something would happen. She couldn’t look at the pictures she took in Florence and not see the beginning. But all she would see in her mind when she tried to sleep was the end. She left him in the airport and whether or not he knew it, she left her heart with him.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bad time to take another break, but it will be a few more days for the next update. Sorry!   
> I hope you're still enjoying the story even though it's taken a bit of a sad turn.   
> As always, I would love to hear what you guys think! Comments make my life!   
> Thanks for still reading this! I appreciate the support!


	12. New York City

“So what are you going to do while you’re in New York?”

Mindy looked up from packing to answer Gwen. “I’m going to orientation. That’s literally the whole point in me going to New York.”

“So you aren’t going to do anything fun?” Maggie whined.

“I’m going to be there for a weekend. I won’t even have time to do anything fun. Besides starting in the fall, I’ll live in New York. I’ll have all the time in the world to do fun stuff. Well when I’m not dying over medical school.”

“Those two are just beating around the bush. I’ll be brave enough to actually ask. Are you going to see Danny?” Alex asked.

Mindy looked up at her friends questioningly. She thought about making a big deal of it. She decided it wasn’t worth this discussion again. “Umm…who?”

All three of her friends groaned. “Come on Mindy!” Alex started, “You have been moping around for months over that boy. You owe it to yourself to actually talk to him when you are literally in the same city.”

“She’s right. I think you’ll regret it if you don’t,” Gwen replied, agreeing with Alex to Mindy’s chagrin.  

“Look guys, I don’t even know what I would say to Danny. We “dated” for like a few weeks. It was nothing.”

“That’s a chicken’s answer,” Maggie said.

“Yeah, and if it was nothing, why were you hung up on him for so long?” Alex asked accusingly.

“Yeah. And if it was nothing, why did you refuse to even go on any dates since you got back?” Gwen piped in.

“Whoa guys! If you haven’t noticed, I’ve had kind of a busy year. Okay? I didn’t have time to go on dates. And I’m not still hung up on Danny. Okay?” Alex started laughing. Mindy looked at her. “What’s so funny?”

She took a breath to answer. “I didn’t say you were _still_ hung up on Danny. I said you _were_ hung up on Danny _._ But you saying that means that you totally are still hung up on him.”

“What? No it…doesn’t,” Mindy replied lamely.

Gwen walked over and put her hands on Mindy’s shoulders. She ducked down and looked Mindy in the eye. “It’s okay for you to be scared about seeing him again. But I really think you’ll regret it if you don’t. At least think about it.” Mindy nodded.

**

As Mindy boarded her plane to New York, she felt a slight panic rise within her. It had been nine months since she’d come back from Europe. That was how she had to phrase it in her head. She couldn’t think about the fact that it’s been nine months since she’s seen Danny or that it’s been nine months since they’d last spoken. She couldn’t think about the fact that it had been nine months since she stupidly broke up with him and left him in a random airport. She couldn’t think about all the moving on that Danny had probably done in the nine months since she was with him.

She may have told her friends she’d think about calling Danny. In reality though, she knew she wouldn’t. Mindy may be plagued with the “What Ifs” but that didn’t mean Danny would be. The same thought that had been in Mindy’s head for the last nine months. What if she hadn’t left him? What if she hadn’t acted weird for two weeks and just enjoyed her time with him instead of doubting everything? What if she had actually talked to him instead of shutting him out? What if she had let him talk in the airport? She couldn’t stop thinking about ways things could be different if she hadn’t overthought things.

She felt stupid still being hung up on him nine months later. But while they were in Europe, Mindy had already admitted to herself that she loved him. That didn’t go away because she left him. The potential for what they could have been was haunting her the most. They could have managed a long distance relationship, right? There was one night not long after she got back where she actually looked through her pictures. She cried as she clicked through them. But when she looked at Danny’s expressions in the pictures, she was fairly certain that she’d been completely wrong; it hadn’t been a fling. She nearly got on a plane to see him that night.

She had been angry with herself for months that she’d let Cliff get in her head. She’d now let Cliff ruin two relationships in her life. When she went to New York for interviews, she came close to calling Danny. She didn’t have the strength then. She didn’t think she really had the strength now. Maybe she could make up some elaborate lie for her friends to explain why she didn’t see him. She knew she ruined things and that didn’t sit well with her. It was her fault she was unhappy. At least she was aware of it.

Thoughts of Danny were driven out of Mindy’s mind by her chronic lateness kicking in. She thought she’d given herself enough time to get to there but New York traffic was killing her. The last thing she wanted to do was run in late to her orientation at Columbia. That certainly wouldn’t make a great impression. After she was dropped off, she sped toward the building, checking her phone to see what time it was. She had two minutes and she was easily four minutes away. She switched into an all-out run in an effort to make it on time. She ran in, spotted an open seat toward the back, and threw herself in it, panting heavily. She ideally would have sat at the front but hopefully she made less of a scene this way.

The professor was still making a welcome speech when she finally started to pay attention. The professor started calling out and recognizing a list of names. Mindy heard him call out someone named Abernathy. He was going down the list alphabetically and the next name he called was “Castellano, Daniel.” Mindy’s head shot up as she scanned the crowd to see where he was.

She spotted him near the front. If she hadn’t been so rushed getting in, she would have noticed him. What were the odds that they both got in at the same medical school? She had been so focused on whether or not to call Danny, she hadn’t even thought about the fact that they could have been in the same program. She was so distracted that she almost missed the professor saying her name. She simply raised her hand like everyone else and he nodded at her.

At the mention of her name, Danny whipped his head around to search for her. Quickly, he found her and all he did was stare. Mindy smiled halfheartedly at him and gave a small wave. He smiled tightly and turned back around. Orientation was pretty much a blur from that point on because Mindy couldn’t focus on anything but Danny five rows in front of her.

At the end of a long presentation, they had a break for lunch. After lunch, they were going to have individual meetings with the professors. Mindy didn’t have the courage to actually talk to Danny at lunch. She kept looking over to where he was actively engaged with a different teacher. She found a teacher and another student to preoccupy her as she kept tabs on Danny. She didn’t know how they got through the short lunch without actually talking, but somehow they did.

Mindy sat out on a bench waiting to be called. Most of the people before her on the list had been called into one of the available rooms. The door to her left opened and Danny walked back in. She looked up and felt the same heart stopping feeling she had the first time she saw him. He walked closer to her but didn’t sit down on the bench next to her. There was a long awkward silence before Mindy finally spoke up.

“So how have you been?” she asked cheerily.

He nodded noncommittally, saying, “I’ve been good. How about you?”

She smiled her best fake smile and agreed. He was standing in the same place and she didn’t know whether she should stand too or invite him to sit. It was so uncomfortable. But at the same time, she was kind of relieved to see him. She really didn’t know what to say. It was her fault they were so awkward and she didn’t want to make the situation worse. Finally Danny bounced on his heels before sitting down next to her.

“We’re going to be in the same program for years. We should get this awkwardness out of the way now and say whatever we need to and then move on from there. It’s the smartest way to go about this,” Danny reasoned.

Mindy nodded, though she didn’t like the way he phrased them moving on. God, he probably had moved on already. It would be crazy to expect him not to. She angled herself more in his direction and he did the same so they were facing each other.

Danny took a deep breath and started, “So what happened in Barcelona, that…sucked.” Mindy noticed his lack of eloquence, holding in her laughter. Saying that what happened “sucked” was the understatement of the year. Mindy realized she hadn’t really reacted. She nodded slowly, allowing him to continue.

“I’ll be honest, I was pretty upset when I got back. Everyone wanted to hear about my trip and I didn’t want to talk about it.”

Mindy laughed sadly, “Yeah, I know what you mean.”

Danny paused, breathing deeply for a moment before he continued. He broke eye contact with Mindy and looked down at his hands. “But what you said that day, about us just being a fling, about that being what I wanted…you were wrong. That wasn’t at all what I wanted.” He swallowed harshly before finally looking back at her. The look in his eyes was killing her. He had the same look that he’d had that day in the airport.

“It wasn’t?” Mindy nearly whispered.

He shook his head. “No. Not at all. I was trying to tell you that but you wouldn’t let me talk.”

Mindy could feel tears building in her eyes. She nodded, hoping he wouldn’t notice her tears. “Sorry about that.”

“It was just as much my fault. If I had just told you how strong my feelings were for you and how much I wanted this, you wouldn’t have doubted it.”

Mindy couldn’t believe the words she was hearing. It was basically what she’d been wanting to hear the entire time. She thought about pinching herself to make sure it was all happening and not some painfully elaborate dream.

“I’m sorry, Danny, about everything,” Mindy choked out. He nodded his understanding.

After a pause, Danny spoke again. “God, this is crazy. How did we both end up at Columbia?”

Mindy laughed and a tear spilled out and ran down her cheek. “Yeah, it is crazy.”

Danny laughed too. He looked at her and they held each other’s gaze for a beat. Danny looked down asking, “Did I make this more awkward?”

“What?” Mindy asked, confused.

“I did, didn’t I? God, we’re going to be spending years together and I started it off by basically professing my love for you. I definitely could have eased into that one.”

Mindy gaped at him. Did he just say love? And was it past tense or present tense? He looked up to see her shocked face still plastered there. Right then a door opened to Mindy’s right and a woman emerged.

“Ms. Lahiri? We’re ready for you now.”

Mindy fought off the urge to groan. This was her moment with Danny and she was going to miss it. She’d looked forward to this teacher meeting but now it paled in comparison to the moment that had been laid out just now. Mindy looked at Danny and he nodded toward the woman.

“Go.”

Mindy reluctantly rose from her seat and plastered on a fake smile for the woman. Luckily she knew her questions by heart and had no problem recalling them for her meeting. Her mind was pretty much elsewhere. The entire time she was in the meeting she was wondering if Danny was still out on the bench waiting for her, waiting to continue the conversation.

Mindy stood up to shake the teachers’ hands as she left. She nearly pranced out of the room to find Danny. She exited into the hallway to find the bench empty. Of course it was. She’d ended them. He’d put himself back out there and still didn’t know how she felt.

Mindy sat down, defeated. She wanted to tell him everything. She wanted to tell him her side of the story. But he was gone. They’d spend the next several years together and she’d have to watch him date other women because she was too stupid to do anything about it.

As she was digging for her phone in her bag, she saw her notebook. It was the same one she’d used to take notes in Europe. Suddenly Mindy remembered something. She threw everything back in her bag and raced off to her hotel. If Mindy had her way, sooner rather than later, Danny would know she loved him too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry that it's a bit long! There are still a couple more chapters left!  
> As always, I'd love to hear from you. What did you like?  
> Sorry for the delay between the last two chapters!  
> Thanks for still reading!


	13. New York City, Part Two

Mindy slowed down the closer she got to his door. She checked her notebook about a hundred times on the way from her hotel to his apartment. She’d remembered the time he jokingly wrote it down one day during class. It was before they’d even started dating. She honestly couldn’t remember why he’d done it, but she was glad she had it.

She got to his door and stopped. She raised her hand to knock but couldn’t bring herself to do it just yet. “Please don’t have a girl here, please don’t have a girl here,” she kept chanting to herself quietly. Finally she worked up the courage and knocked on his door. She waited a bit before he finally answered the door. The stunned look on his face told her that he definitely didn’t expect her to find him.

“Mindy,” he said in a completely shocked tone.

She breathed in deep. “Hi.” She had a lot to say but she didn’t know how to start. She didn’t think she wanted to say it all on his doorstep.

“What are you doing here?”

“I wanted to finish our conversation.”

Danny looked at her shrewdly. “I didn’t really think there was more to it.”

Mindy stepped closer yet still not inside. “Of course there was more to it.”

Danny nodded for a second before he stepped aside and motioned for her to come inside. She followed him in and stood just inside the door, unsure of how to proceed. She knew what she needed to say, it was just a matter of getting it out. She had the habit of saying completely the wrong thing and she was determined to not let that happen this time. She had her moment now; she couldn’t let it slip away.

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, preparing to finally let it all out. “Look Danny – ”

“Do you want something to drink?” Danny asked right as she started talking.

“No thanks. I’m afraid if I don’t say what I need to say now I’ll never say it. I just don’t know how to start.”

Danny nodded understandingly. “Just say it.” He looked like he was preparing himself for the worst.

“I’ve never been the luckiest in the relationship department. They just don’t happen to me. I mean Cliff was the first actual boyfriend I had and we dated for a few months before he dumped me. I’m just not used to people actually wanting to be with me. So when Cliff came and told me that I shouldn’t get my hopes up, I believed him. Which was stupid. The guy’s a dick. I was just scared that maybe he was right and I was letting myself get in too deep.”

She paused to evaluate his reaction. His neutral expression gave her nothing to work with. She decided to press on. “It was hard for me to believe that someone like you could actually want to be with me. You are a really great person and I knew you cared about me but I just didn’t think it was the same way I did for you. So I did what comes naturally and I messed it up. And it was stupid and I’ve regretted it ever since then. I regret how I acted the entire time in Spain. You kept trying to make me happy and I just kept shutting you down.  I just knew that if I let myself get deeper into what we had and then at the end of it you said we were just a fling, I would be a wreck. Which I mean, I was a wreck anyway.”

Danny sat down at his kitchen table. Mindy followed suit and did as well. She hoped that meant he wasn’t dismissing her.

“I’m really sorry about everything. I’ve missed you. I’ve probably missed you more than I should have. It’s strange to me because I’ve been hung up on you for the past nine months, unable to move on and yet we only spent almost two months together. It’s just so silly.”

“No it’s not,” Danny choked out, looking at her with meaning.

Mindy smiled weakly at him. She stood up suddenly and started pacing around his kitchen. He looked at her like she’d gone insane. Finally she stopped and focused on him.

“You said that we should just put it all out there and move forward from there. Right?”

“Right.”

She nodded, afraid of what she was about to say. “I never told you this while we were over there, but I should have.” She paused again, closing her eyes, unable to make the words come out. If she put it out there and got rejected, she knew there’d be no way for her to recover from it. She opened her eyes, knowing that she wouldn’t let her fear get the best of her again.

She looked straight at him, holding his gaze. “I love you. It seems weird to me that it’s been nine months and I still feel this way but I do. I love you. When you took me to that little café in Florence, I knew it. I wanted to tell you but every instinct told me to hold it in because it was too soon. This last year has been a mess because I knew that I ruined my chance with the person I love.”

Danny sat there staring at her. He didn’t say anything or acknowledge her admission. He just sat there like he was processing things. His silence was unnerving to Mindy. In the hundreds of times she’d imagined saying it to him, she’d never pictured him not responding.

During his silence, it occurred to her that he’d never said anything about his current relationship status. She could have been right before in assuming he’d have moved on. He was probably expecting his skinny, blonde girlfriend to show up any minute and the last thing he needed was some random girl from nine months ago to show up and profess her love to him.

She reached over and grabbed her purse. “Umm…you’ve probably moved on by now. I mean why wouldn’t you? Any sane person would. So…” She turned to leave.

“Mindy.”

She paused in her path to the door. She heard a chair move behind her and within seconds she could feel him behind her. She turned around slowly and looked at him. He stood close to her. Too close. It was getting hard for her to breathe. Their faces were inches apart if that. He wasn’t touching her and she wasn’t moving away. He looked her in the eyes and brought his hands up to cup her face.

“I love you, too.”

Slowly, as if he was relishing it, he brought their lips together. He kissed her slowly and languidly. She was fine with it because she still wasn’t convinced this wasn’t all a dream. Mindy responded in kind, dropping her purse and running a hand up his arm, stopping at his neck. When he finally broke apart, he tilted his head back to look at her.

“I couldn’t move on either,” he said simply. She smiled happily at him.

“Does it make me a bad person that I’m happy to hear that?” Mindy asked, laughing a little.

Danny laughed with her. “Nah. I don’t think so.”

They stood there just looking at each other, appreciating the fact that they finally could again. Danny stroked his thumb across her cheek. She wove her hands into the hair at the nape of his neck as she was fond of doing before. She was content just standing there with him.

Mindy laughed suddenly, breaking the dreamlike state they’d been standing in. She pulled back a bit further saying, “So…congrats on getting into med school! That’s awesome.”

Danny chuckled, shaking his head humoredly. “Yeah, congrats to you, too. Columbia, that’s a big deal.”

“That’s what I hear,” she said, still laughing.

He looked at her seriously for a second saying, “It was kinda funny, when I found out that I got in, you were one of the first people I wanted to tell.”

She ran a comforting hand up his arm. “Yeah, I get that.”

She pulled him back in for another kiss. They may have started out slowly again, but it quickly transitioned into something deeper and hotter. Both their hands were everywhere as they reacquainted themselves with the other person. Nine months was too long to spend apart. Mindy backed them up away from the door.When Danny hit a table, he broke their kiss.

With a lewd grin, he said, “You know, Grant isn’t here…”

Mindy was confused. “Wait! You actually live with Grant?”

Danny gave her an unimpressed look. Finally Mindy understood his meaning. “Ohhhh…” she said, nodding her head. She laughed a little at herself. Mindy gestured to the apartment, “You know you didn’t even offer a tour of your home. How rude.”

Danny shook his head and leaned in to kiss her again, making quick work of her shirt and dropping it to the floor. Mindy pulled back saying, “I mean it’s just good manners to offer a tour…”

Danny lunged and scooped her up, taking off for his bedroom. She was fine with it. They’d waited long enough. As he tossed her down on his bed, her laughs echoed off the walls the same way that her moans did later.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kinda long again, sorry! One more chapter! Thanks for sticking with me! What did you think?


	14. Epilogue

“Daniel Castellano, Summa Cum Laude.”

Danny proudly walked across the stage to get his diploma. As he stood in the spotlight and shook the man’s hand while accepting his diploma, he felt incredibly happy to have reached this moment. Not many people knew it, but he was among the first in his family to graduate college. And then he was going to med school to boot. Things had finally worked out in his favor.

As he walked back off the stage and back to his seat, he thought of how at the same moment, hours north, Mindy was doing the exact same thing. He’d been upset when he found out that their graduations were the same day. He’d wanted to see her graduate but his mother insisted that he walk at his own graduation. It was kind of a big deal for the family.

Finally after graduation ended, Danny wove through the crowd to find his family. His mother stood there with her arms outstretched ready to congratulate him. He could see that her face was still a bit wet from crying. He’d expected nothing less. His brother gave him a big hug as well.

“So where is everyone?” Danny asked.

“Well your aunts and your uncles ran back to the house after you got your diploma to make sure everything was ready for your party.”

“I said I didn’t need a party, Ma,” Danny whined.

“And I told you to forget about that because we want to celebrate you. You just graduated college and are about to start med school. Let us brag about you a bit,” Annette replied. Danny nodded begrudgingly.

“Well if they all left then we can head back there and meet them,” Danny said.

“Well actually there’s one more person who came and stayed…” Annette said cryptically.

“What? Who?” Thoughts ran through Danny’s head of who else would have shown up. He had no real idea of who it could be. He looked over to where his mother was pointing to see Mindy standing there. He felt his heart leap in his chest. The thought of Mindy showing up at his graduation honestly hadn’t crossed his mind since she had her own to go to. Once he got over his shock of seeing her, he ran towards her and picked her up. She clutched tight to him and kissed his cheek quickly when he was putting her back down.

He leaned in and kissed her chastely. “What are you doing here?”

She kept her arms wrapped around him, pulling herself in a little closer. “You are one of the first Castellanos to graduate college. That’s a big deal! You can’t expect me to miss that,” she answered as if it explained everything.

“But you had your own graduation today…”

“Eh, I skipped it. I had to promise my parents that I’d walk at my med school graduation. But that’s years from now, we’ll see how they feel then,” she said offhandedly.

He looked at her in awe. “I can’t believe you did this.”

She leaned back in and kissed him quickly. “Well it was an excuse to see you. The last three weeks have gone by really slowly and I missed you.”

“We’ve talked like every day…”

“Yeah, talking to you and seeing you are completely different things, Danny. I shouldn’t have to explain that to you,” Mindy replied, shaking her head in disappointment.

“It _is_ really good to see you,” Danny agreed.

“Mhmm…”

“And to get to do this…” Danny said as he leaned in for another kiss. Right before they actually kissed, he could hear his mother clear her throat. They both pulled back with sheepish grins on their faces.

“We ready to go now?” Annette asked.

Danny threaded his fingers through Mindy’s and looked up at his mom. “I think so.”

**

Danny found Mindy out on the deck by herself. He was pleased to get away from the raucous gathering inside the house. It was overwhelming to have everyone together even at times when it wasn’t in his honor. He was also pleased though, to get a moment with just Mindy.

He sat down next to her and she cuddled into his side. He leaned down and kissed the crown of her head. They sat there staring out at nothing, content just being with each other.

“Thank you for coming. Having you here made tonight a lot more enjoyable,” Danny said, breaking the silence.

“More enjoyable? What are you talking about? Your family is awesome,” Mindy questioned, turning slightly to look at him.

Danny shrugged. “Well either way, it was nice to have you here.”

Mindy smiled and leaned in to kiss him. “No place I’d rather be.” She quickly pulled out of his embrace and reached for her bag. “That reminds me, I forgot to give you your graduation present!”

“Graduation present? Mindy, you did not have to do that. Take it back, it’s too much.”

“You don’t even know what it is yet.”

“I don’t care. You didn’t need to get me anything,” Danny assured her.

“Well too late. It’s kind of non-refundable,” Mindy said assertively. She grabbed the present she was looking for and handed it to him.

He shook his head at her disbelievingly as he unwrapped it. He opened it to find a guidebook that said “Spain.”

“What is this?” Danny asked curiously.

“This, Danny, is my gift to you. Well not really the book, it’s just a symbol…”

“Of…?”

“Of the trip to Spain I booked for us this summer,” Mindy replied excitedly.

Danny gaped at her. “What? How? And why?”

“To answer your questions, yes, I actually did this. How? I used the internet and actually talked with Dr. Jones about good places to visit. Why? Because I don’t think either of us really enjoyed Spain last summer and that seems like a damn shame and I love you and I want to do this,” she concluded with a smile.

“Mindy, I can’t let you do this. This is so much money.”

“I just bought the airfare,” Mindy explained.

Danny just shook his head at her like she was crazy. Mindy scooted even closer to him and linked her arms through one of his. “Look, Danny, I just wanted us to do something special. We’re going to start going crazy in the fall with all the rigors of medical school and this is our chance to do something fun and something just us. I don’t move to New York until like July. This will give us an excuse to spend time together uninterrupted for a whole week. I think that sounds pretty great.”

Danny smiled and looked back at her. “I think so too.”

Mindy squealed with joy and sat herself on his lap, wrapping her arms around his neck. “So what do you say, Danny Castellano? Do you want to travel the world with me?”

Danny smiled at her and pulled her in for a deep kiss. She clung to him as they kissed happily, happy to be together and happy to be _back_ together. Danny finally pulled back and looked at her. He thought about travelling and their futures and how much he loved her as he said, “Let’s do this.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A big Thank You to all of you who read this! Also thanks to Liz for giving me this prompt! It was so fun to work with! I hope it lived up to what you wanted.  
> To everyone who left kudos and comments, Thank You so much! They really kept me going and I appreciated the support!  
> Thanks for sticking with this story! I hope you enjoyed it!  
> As always, I'd love to hear what you thought! What parts of it did you like? I always love to hear what stuck out to people!

**Author's Note:**

> I made a few tweaks to the original prompt but mainly stayed with it. I actually LOVED this prompt and was kinda sad it wasn't my own idea! I hope I do it justice!  
> Let me know what you think!  
> As always, you can find me here: http://allmylovesatonce.tumblr.com/


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